Articles | Volume 26, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-26-27-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/we-26-27-2026
AGORA: Ideas and Concepts
 | 
11 Feb 2026
AGORA: Ideas and Concepts |  | 11 Feb 2026

The Rings of Power: managing nutrient cycles in aquatic food webs above and beyond primary producers

Koushik Roy and Jan Mraz

Cited articles

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Bureau, D. P., Kaushik, S. J., and Cho, C. Y.: Bioenergetics, Fish Nutrition, 1–59, 2003. 
Danger, M., Bec, A., Spitz, J., and Perga, M.-E.: Special issue: Questioning the roles of resources nutritional quality in ecology, Oikos, 2022, e09503, https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09503, 2022. 
Drábiková, L.: Re-thinking phosphorus: The effects of low and high dietary phosphorus on the development of the skeleton in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L.), Ghent University, http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01H1P4W1DSXFJM3YJ3R7JG5W1R (last access: 9 February 2026), 2023. 
Elser, J. J., Bracken, M. E. S., Cleland, E. E., Gruner, D. S., Harpole, W. S., Hillebrand, H., Ngai, J. T., Seabloom, E. W., Shurin, J. B., and Smith, J. E.: Global analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation of primary producers in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, Ecol. Lett., 10, 1135–1142, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01113.x, 2007. 
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Short summary
Not all nutrients (C, N, P) are processed in the same way: some nutrient forms hold power dynamics over others for efficient assimilation in biological systems. Rings of Power connect the ecology and metabolism of aquatic ecosystems, providing means to control nutrient cycles in waters through higher trophic levels (aquatic consumers).
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